


Child of the Clouds

by Xardogn



Category: Katekyou Hitman Reborn!
Genre: A very many bad things, Backstory, Canon-Typical Violence, Experimental weapons, Heavy Angst, Human Experimentation, Past Child Abuse, Physical Abuse, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-27
Updated: 2017-03-26
Packaged: 2018-09-02 13:31:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 13,766
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8669572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xardogn/pseuds/Xardogn
Summary: After freeing the Arcobaleno from their curse, things seemed almost peaceful in Namimori. In Hibari's world, things like that were never meant to last. The past events that shaped him to become who he was reared their ugly head once more, and this time, the Vongola got involved.
Or in which past grievances never stayed buried and violence is only a shell worth holding something even more fragile.





	1. Chapter 1

A singular lazy cloud drifted on the light breeze that ran through Namimori. Hibari Kyoya, the so called Cloud Guardian of the Vongola Famiglia, felt like it was mocking him. It had been around a month since the end of the battle against the Vindice and somehow, Hibari felt less than satisfied. Perhaps it was because of the ring that was in his pocket he could never manage to throw away-or maybe the knowledge that even his future self couldn’t escape the fate of having the idiot rats invade his personal space all the time.

At least after the last fight he was of the opinion if it ended in challenges like that, maybe carrying the ring wasn’t so bad.

Hibird called out his name, fluttering swiftly down to where he lay on the roof, nestling into his jacket pillow. Hibari himself murmured a greeting before turning his eyes back to the lone cloud. It was a seriously beautiful day; the temperature was perfect, birds were chirping, and the light sound of laughter and activity could be heard from the various Namimori residents. Even the resident demonic Chairman felt at peace, though it was mitigated by his further irritation about his boredom.

Reborn and Vongola Nono had apparently decided that despite his massive achievements in gathering all the Arcebelano allies to take down Kawahira, Sawada was still a bit too young to take on the mantle of the so called ‘Neo Vongola Primo’. Frankly, Hibari didn’t really care any further than the fact that while he should be enjoying some peace and quiet without being surrounded by obnoxious humans, something felt off.

It wasn’t sakura-he’d immediately ordered all sakura trees in his vicinity to be removed and it had mostly worked-it was more a harrowing sense of nothing. That peace was too false, and he should know better than to just lay there because something was going to crawl up on him from inside and devour him.

Useless feelings. Hibari blew a strand of hair out of his face, picking up his phone as the Namimori anthem suddenly blared from it. _Whatever poor soul that was calling with useless information had better pray to the nearest god,_ he thought idly to himself. Maybe it would get him a chance to get out of his useless funk and bite someone to death.

No such luck, however, as Hibari’s lips thinned when he saw the caller ID. Kusakabe was calling, and he had finally admitted his right-hand was the least likely to contact him uselessly. He pressed the button, already speaking before Kusakabe had a chance to talk.

“If this is something other than what I assigned you to look at, I’m going to bite you to death,” he hissed, malice clear even over the crackle of the phone.

It was to Kusakabe’s credit that he didn’t even flinch hearing the irritated tone in his boss’s voice. “It’s nothing like that, Boss. I’m calling to say there was a recent disturbance in your territory, and I think I linked it back to the group you told me to track down. I thought you might want to take a look.”

Hibari froze. After the mess with Vongola was over, the Cloud Guardian saw a good opportunity to spread his resources looking into other projects that varied from box weapon research to building the basic structure of his future self’s organization, and apparently the most important one had hit paydirt.

“I’ll be there.” Hibari snapped the phone off, knowing Kusakabe was smart enough to text him the location instead of insisting on annoying him. These people had eluded him since he was little; like hell he was going to let them go now.

There was a whip of a black jacket, a flash of yellow wings, and suddenly the rooftop was empty.

* * *

 

Tsuna had really gotten used to all the weird crap that had started happening every time he walked outside of his house, but it still didn’t fail to give him a headache when a mini-Hibari jumped out at him from a bush.

An almost-scream, activated flames, and an apology from Fon later, he was seated with the former Arcabelano on the porch. The martial arts master had apparently been here to check on how his student was doing and to thank Nana for taking care of her, before taking a nap in a bush.

Personally, Tsuna thought that maybe Fon and Hibari had more in common than just their looks.

“Why exactly were you taking a nap in the bushes, though?” Tsuna asked. It really didn’t seem like him.

“I hadn’t intended to,” Fon admitted, “but I suppose I got caught up in reminiscing. Being free of the curse makes me think about the past.”

All that did for Tsuna was make him even more curious, but even if Fon was generally friendly, it didn’t seem like a good thing to ask. “I-um…don’t know much about any of your pasts before the curse happened.”

“You wouldn’t, and I don’t blame you. We’re much older than we appear. I should tell you how much of an old fart Reborn is, but he might take it back out on you,” Fon said with a slight smile.

Tsuna winced. Despite his growing strength, he really didn’t look forward to whatever future lessons his tutor had in store for him. “How old are you then?”

“Old enough to be a grandfather.” Something about the way Fon said that set off a spark in his famous Vongola intuition and Tsuna couldn’t help but stare at the martial artist.

“You have kids?”

“I had one, yes.” The soft tone caught Tsuna off guard, and the photo suddenly being presented in front of him even more. A young woman was smiling in the photograph, showing off a bright yellow hat. She looked a bit like Fon, with long black hair and a narrow figure. “That’s the only photo of my daughter, Li-Yin.”

Tsuna stared at the photo a bit longer, unsure of what to do. He hadn’t expected Fon to start talking about such a subject, nor how to respond to something like this. He almost wished Kyoko or Yamamoto were here: those two were much better at this than he was. What was he supposed to say? Stumbling over his words a bit, he answered. “S-she’s really pretty.”

Whether Fon saw how awkward he was or not, it didn’t seem to matter to the storm Arcebaleno. “Yes, she was. I’m very glad I managed to at least get a photo of her smiling. Being cursed and having such heavy connections to the mafia meant I didn’t get to see her. This photo I have is a memento that she was once happy.”

“Ah-Fon, I’m really sorry. I didn’t know that!” Tsuna felt weight drop onto his shoulders from the revelation. Did that mean if his curse had been broken earlier, could Fon have gone to see his daughter before she died? Or-

The most well-placed phone call in history took place at that moment, and Tsuna rushed to grab at it and check the caller ID. Confused, he saw that it was Yamamoto’s number. Gokudera was one story, but the baseball lover was more prone to texting him than actually calling. It started sending alarm bells off in his head, and he gripped the phone tighter. “Sorry Fon, but I think something’s wrong. I need to take thi-“

Tsuna suddenly looked upward, only to see the absence of the martial artist anywhere in his vicinity. Still holding a photo of the girl with a yellow hat and his phone, the future leader glanced around dumbly. “What-where did he go?”  

The phone continuing to ring insistently shook him out of his stupor, almost dropping both items as he scrambled to answer it. “Hello??”

Surprisingly, it was not Yamamoto’s, but Gokudera’s voice that came through. “Juudaime! Thank god you answered. Something really weird is going on here!”

Tsuna almost had to pull the phone away from how loud his Storm Guardian shouted that. “Gokudera-kun, calm down! What happened, and why do you have Yamamoto-kun’s phone?”

“I was just hanging out with that baseball idiot-it wasn’t like I wanted to be near him, but he dragged me along anyway, and on the outskirts of town, we got ambushed by some strange people I’ve never seen before!” Gokudera lapsed off into Italian that somehow Tsuna knew was him saying something extremely rude before he was able to get in a word edgewise.

“Wait, what are you saying? Gokudera-kun, slow down!” Tsuna frantically urged his friend.

“Juudaime, I apologize for being confusing! I will make it up to you once we find that idiot again. Come down to the park by the waterside!” Before he could say anything further, the bomber had already hung up the phone and left Tsuna with nothing but silence.

His intuition told him it was something important and besides, Gokudera was sounding uncharacteristically hysterical. In the next moments it took him to jump into action, he yelled out to his mom he was going somewhere and took off, forgetting even the photo in his hand.

By the time Tsuna got to the specified location, it was already a mess. No police were on hand, and the park looked almost pristine, but for some reason, the area was crawling with Disciplinary Committee students.

Thankfully, he didn’t have to look around much longer, as Gokudera called out to him-from behind a bush. Apparently he didn’t agree with the Disciplinary Commmittee’s appearance, as he nearly dragged his beloved boss behind the protection of the plant.

“Juudaime, you’re finally here! Those damn bastards just showed up and took over and I can’t get anything out of them,”Gokudera growled, an unlit cigarette hanging from his lips. “The baseball idiot just disappeared and those assholes blocked the area off!”

“Okay, but Gokudera-kun, could you explain how Yamamoto-kun disappeared? The park looks perfectly fine!” Tsuna raised his hands, trying to calm his own right-hand man down, despite it not working very well.

“Of course Tenth! Anything to help you out!” Sometimes Gokudera’s loyalty could really be helpful, but not when getting information out of him in a speedy manner. “I was just walking along with the shitty baseball idiot, and then out of nowhere these people appeared. I attempted to blow them up of course, but it was like when we were fighting them, they weren’t even there.”

Gokudera paused to take a breath, then continued. “They must have been using some kind of weapon that we’ve never seen before. At one point my vision got all blurry, but when it cleared Yamamoto was nowhere to be found.”

_A new weapon, already?!_ Tsuna thought to himself. _It couldn’t be the Millefoire, they wouldn’t do anything like that. And Reborn hasn’t said anything, what’s going on?_

Before either of them could get any more worked up, a depressingly familiar voice rang out.

“You better had a good explanation for how this is connected.” That low voice could only belong to Hibari-san, and that meant Tsuna was right about the Disciplinary Committee members.

“Hibari?! What the hell is that guy doing? What could he even want with-hey, Juudaime, Juudaime! Come back!” Gokudera had to get up and chase his boss, who’d immediately gotten up and ran over after hearing the Cloud Guardian’s voice.

“Hibari-san, where’s Yamamoto-kun?” Tsuna asked wildly, right as Gokudera reached his arm and tried to tug him back. Surprisingly, to the both of them, Hibari barely afforded either of them a glance before turning back to questioning his second in command.

“Tell me, or I’ll bite you to death,” Hibari said softly. Despite being used to Hibari’s almost constant bloodlust, this time it felt different. It was like he was on the edge of snapping, and Tsuna almost unconsciously took a step back.

“The flame signatures recorded in this area are same as the data you gave us. It’s strongest in the area around the park, but there’s something wrong with it. Everyone who enters loses their sense of direction and comes back out in a different place,” Kusakabe reported, not even acknowledging the newcomers.

Gokudera fumed in the background, but Tsuna, nervous about an impending fight and the steady rise in irritation he could sense from Hibari, dragged them both away with a ‘I’m sorry for disturbing you!’ and headed towards the park.

The grey-haired bomber scrubbed at his head furiously. “And I’ll bet the rest of my cigarettes we aren’t going to get anything useful from either. Ah, fuck, this doesn’t make any sense! That park should look ruined. I personally can attest to that!”

“I think I should call Reborn. Yamamoto-kun is missing,” Tsuna said, not sure how to follow the angry ranting. He felt for his friend, but his intuition was worrying him beyond just a messed-up park. What if Yamamoto had been injured? Was this a part of a larger attack?

Gokudera suddenly walked towards the park, ignoring the Disciplinary members and muttering about light refraction and lenses. The call to Reborn went through smoothly, though Tsuna was unsurprised that somehow he’d heard about the mess already. The Guardians were being gathered, but in the meantime he had to stop Gokudera from destroying too much to get to Yamamoto, and he’d have to call the boy’s dad as well….

It was then that Tsuna realized he still had the photo from Fon in his hand. _Crap, I totally forgot to give it back to him, what if he gets angry? Didn’t Hibari know him?_ The idea of giving it to the Cloud Guardian was just as quickly thrown out, as he was looking increasingly angry, stalking towards their direction like a beast on the prowl.

_Wait, why am I even thinking about that-Yamamoto could be in danger! I should just ask-_

“Where did you get that photo?!” Suddenly there was a hand around his shirt and photo and he was pulled upward to meet Hibari’s angry eyes. Tsuna could barely hear Gokudera’s angry shirt over the sound of his own beating heart and the roaring of angry flames.

“I’ll ask you again, _Sawada,_ where did you get that photo?” Hibari snarled. In the next moment there was a flash of light as Natsu emerged from his ring and Gokudera simultaneously activating his Sistema C.A.I. ,aiming the cannon directly at the errant Disciplinary Chairman. The grip on his collar was released and he was pulled back by his friend, only to realize Hibari had snatched the photo of Fon’s daughter from his hand.

“You didn’t have to attack me for that!” Tsuna shouted, but the Cloud Guardian had ignored both of them as a threat to himself and instead kept staring at the photo. It went on long enough that even Gokudera lowered his weapon, think something might be wrong with the violent kid.

Even Kusakabe didn’t know what to say, and merely ordered the other disciplinary members to leave with a look. The rest of them had a front row view of actually watching Hibari’s expression change from anger, to confusion, and then something like rage when Tsuna finally answered his question.

“Fon gave that to me. I need to give it back, Hibari-san.” He held strong even when Hibari turned his head and glared with his full being.

“Fon? Here’s my answer to him.” And suddenly, before anyone could stop him, the Cloud Guardian made a sudden jerking motion with his wrist and tore the picture in half.  Tsuna couldn’t stop himself from gasping and making a motion to move forward, only stopping with a look from Hibari’s eyes.

That wasn’t normal. The color was unchanged but the young boss had never seen such a look of outright fear and anger in Hibari’s eyes before. The two halves of the picture floated down until they rested on the Chairman’s flawless shoes, being stepped on as he turned around to the scene of the crime.

Even Gokudera didn’t know what to do, as Tsuna glanced over to see his Sistema just floating in the air. His right hand man edged around the safe Hibari boundary, before bounding to Tsuna’s side and frantically seeing if he was alright.

“Juudaime, what happened? Are you okay? I’ll kill that bastard, just you watch!” It took a hand to Gokudera’s shoulder and a loud ‘no’ to get him to stop moving.

“Something’s wrong,” he explained when his friend gave him a questioning glance. Gokudera didn’t really look convinced, but since it was Juudaime and the famed Vongola intuition, he didn’t say a word and just stared at Hibari’s back.

The Disciplinary Chairman looked stiffer than normal ever since he ripped on the picture; at least Tsuna thought so. It was him brushing Kusakabe off that had him think he wasn’t just seeing things.

“Shouldn’t we go after him-“

“What the-?!”

The two started from their position as without warning, Hibari raised his right hand and expelled a massive purple flame. The stream struck the air around the park, only to make it shimmer and writhe as if it were alive. The Cloud Guardian didn’t blink, just kept it up and watched as the the purple flames continued to feed into it, causing the images to sharpen, blur, and grow so bright that no one could stand to look at it anymore.

It was only then that there was a huge puff of smoke and a small explosion of flame. Hibari withdrew his hand and turned away, even as the air was still clearing. “Sawada. Your idiot swordsman is in there. And tell Fon if he ever shows his face around me again, _I will kill him.”_

The clouds lifted and finally Tsuna saw evidence of twisted and burnt trees, as well as a prone body lying on the flattened grass. Seeing a sword lying next to it, he jolted out of where he’d been frozen in place, barely passing a glance at Hibari as they rushed on by. He’d been acting strange, but Yamamoto was more important.

And even if he had focused on the Cloud Guardian, it would be hard to see the dim look of confusion that lit up in his eyes.

* * *

 

 “Yamamoto-kun! Thank goodness you’re alright!” It had been a huge load off Tsuna’s chest as he practically ran into the hospital room, Ryohei and Gokudera at his heels, only to see the boy bright and alert, surrounded by his dad and the rest of the family.

True to his word, Reborn had really gathered all the guardians, as well as contacted Yamamoto’s father as soon as they found the Rain Guardian lying unconscious on the ground. Kusakabe had been nice enough to call the hospital for them and even post a lookout, as they still had no idea who had initiated the attacks.

Yamamoto had initially looked pretty bad, but once the medics had gotten their hands on him, they had said while the wounds were messy, it was nothing serious. Gokudera had waved off medical assistance despite being involved in the attack too, preferring to stay with Tsuna and investigate.

It had made them late to the hospital, and turned up nothing of use. The area looked like multiple bombs had been set off-Gokudera was very proud of that-but no evidence of the attackers remained. The only option was to ask the other victim.

Which is why they were here, now. Yamamoto laughed and waved, beckoning for them to come in all the way. “Ah, there you guys are! Dad told me you guys were the one that found me.”

Predictably, Gokudera was the first one to go off on him. “You goddamn baseball idiot! Did you think you could steal all the fuckin’ glory by playing the lone hero? You better hope you remember something useful or I’ll blow you out of this room for making the Tenth worry!”

Ryohei followed up with an ‘WE WERE EXTREMELY WORRIED!’ causing more chaos and a warning from the hospital staff before everyone finally settled down.

“So, Yamamoto-kun, did you actually remember something?” Tsuna tried to ignore the fact that Lambo was now attempting to climb his leg for attention and kept pushing him down. Reborn had set up shop on Yamamoto’s shoulder like normal, just shy of the bandages peeking out from under his shirt.

Surprisingly as he said that, the Rain Guardian’s expression grew serious, which got even Gokudera to pause in his scolding. “I pushed Gokudera away because they seemed like they were only after me. They managed to knock me out for a little while, but I woke up earlier than expected because they were using Rain flames to do it.

“I don’t really get how that worked, but I overheard them talking as they dragged me to the park. It wasn’t very clear, but they said something about someone named Pruvia, and…..” Yamamoto hesitated, glancing over at his father. Tsuyoshi just smiled reassuringly and reached out to pat his son on the shoulder.

“If you’re worried about talking in front of me, don’t be. I know what you’ve been involving yourself into. I can’t say it doesn’t make me worried, but the more we know about the ones who hurt you, the better,” he said, an underlying hint of steel in the last words. Tsuna couldn’t help but agree quietly, but he didn’t think adding anything onto Tsuyoshi’s words was going to help.

“Hahah, it feels weird to hear you say that, Dad.” The younger Yamamoto let out a short laugh that sounded like an approximation of what a human was supposed to sound like when happy, but fell short of the mark. “But they actually weren’t after me. They mentioned something about the whole Vongola thing, said ‘he’s not it’ plus a few curse words and then mentioned Hibari.”

“Wait, _what?_ Hibari? What the hell does he have to do with the guys who attacked us?” Gokudera practically stammered. “Is that why he visited the place where we found you?”

Both Tsuna and Tsuyoshi had to jump forward at that moment, because Yamamoto flung himself forward, nearly knocking Gokudera over in the process.   
“Yamamoto-kun! You’re gonna injure yourself-what are you doing?” Tsuna asked forcefully.

“They were after Hibari, though, They mistook me for him, _you have to warn him_!”

* * *

 

It was only through sheer force of will that Hibari stopped himself from punching a wall until he was out of eye and earshot of literally anyone. His fingers tingled from the large dent he’d left in the wall and his knuckles would be bleeding later, but he didn’t care.

This was all too well-planned for his liking.

First the people he’d told Kusakabe to track down turned up in Namimori and attacked someone he was connected to, and just _coincidentally_ Fon had given the Sawada brat a picture of _her?_ No, that bastard knew something, and it was only petty anger keeping him from calling and demanding answers.

He knew it was a probably not the smart thing to do. Hibari hadn’t survived this long by being stupid; people were useful tools, especially when you needed information, but he didn’t think he could bring himself to talk to anyone now without trying to kill them. And a dead body was really hard to interrogate.

“Is this what you fucking wanted?” He muttered to himself, taking a sharp turn down a quiet street. The scenic route home was a good idea. Maybe he’d stop by the school and see if anyone was loitering around to get bitten to death. That would make him feel better.

It took only a moment’s decision to send a message to Kusakabe, warning him and anyone else on the Committee to come looking for him at their own expense, and to report any details of the investigation by email only. With that, he snapped his phone closed and proceeded to let out a slight smile as Hibird landed on his head.

“At least one of us seems to be enjoying ourselves,” he murmured quietly as the little yellow bird nestled itself into his hair.

Unfortunately, not even that was enough to distract him. His thoughts kept drifting back to the attack: the mysterious group having thrown up an illusionary field: but why? Taking Yamamoto Takeshi: but why? They were mobilizing now despite years of being quiet, and their first blow had been entirely too close for comfort.

There were too many questions. So deep in his web of thoughts that he almost didn’t notice the other presence on the street until it brushed by his leg. Startled, he drew his leg back and tonfa halfway out before a small mew stopped him.

It was a cat. An unusually blue/grey/white colored cat, but it was a cat all the same, and now it was winding back to rub against his leg again. Hibari sighed, exasperated. He needed to be more vigilant if even a street cat were to sneak up on him.

Checking to see if there was no one else around, the Cloud Guardian finally acquiesced to the cat’s demands and kneeled down, holding a hand out to rub it against the creature’s ears. The cat responded in kind, arching its back to meet the hand and purring, rubbing its face all over his arm.

“You’re very friendly, little one. Should I feel touched?” A small smile graced Hibari’s lips as he continued to pet the animal. The cat continued to be friendly, almost mewing in response to the boy’s question before further ingratiating itself to the petting.

This continued for a little bit, Hibari feeling his anger from before ebbing away into a sense of almost serenity. Truly, animals were better than people. Even Hibird had come down from his head to investigate the new friend. The cat was purring and making pleased chirps and it was only when Hibari decided to get up and take the cat home with him that he realized something was off.

He couldn’t get up. Or rather, he didn’t want to get up, as he was feeling so calm that he just wanted to drift off to sleep right here in the middle of the street. The Cloud Guardian stared at the cat, his eyes blinking. “Are you…”

He never got to finish that sentence, the cat suddenly reaching out and sinking teeth into his left hand. Hibari gave a hiss, pain making his body jolt upward into action only to fall back down again a second later, his legs like jelly.

“You-“Hibari tried to get his lips to form the sound of words but they couldn’t. Nothing in his body was working like it was supposed to, and he was slowly shutting down. Belatedly, he realized this was the effect of an infusion of Rain flames-and cursed himself for letting his guard down.

He vaguely heard the clattering of his tonfa, Hibird screeching and the sudden sound of approaching footsteps. He almost wished it was the Vongola; he knew that despite them seeing him like this, he’d still get a chance to beat them up later. But there was no such luck, and hands came down to flip him over and rifle through his clothes and pockets, looking for anything important as he stared aimlessly into the sky.

“…him. Weapons too. No traces…”

“…really work?......Vongola will be after……”

                “…word to Pluvia. She’ll…..”

Voices faded in and out as Hibari tried to force himself to get up, fight, do _anything._ But it was hopeless. The last thing he remembered was Hibird screeching wildly, and that same lonely cloud in the sky mocking him as his consciousness snapped out of existence.


	2. Chapter 2

_It was not so long ago that there was a woman named Li-Yin. She had been abandoned by her family, left a working college student, struggling to get by. Nothing made her happy, and thoughts of her father just made her angry. He left her, she thought, he left her when she was young because he didn’t care about her at all._

_With no way to confirm these thoughts, she grew tired and angry. It didn’t matter, she thought. It didn’t matter where he was doing. She wanted to just get away from all of this. Move somewhere else. But she needed money. She couldn’t find a job anywhere, but she really needed it._

_Li-Yin was smart and bright, or so she thought, but she found herself making the terrible decision of becoming beholden to a smooth-talking yakuza man from Japan. All she had to do was give him a child, and she would get the money she wanted._

_It was both the best and worst decision of her life._

* * *

 

It had taken them several moments to calm Yamamoto down from his outburst, his dad and Ryohei helping hold him back. Gokudera had started helping, but he soon doubled over in pain and fell on the floor. It was enough of a shock that the Rain Guardian stopped fighting to get out of bed and instead waited quietly while the medics called in figured out what was wrong.

“I thought I’d protected him better,” Yamamoto sighed, looking over at the bet where the prone Storm Guardian lay.  Gokudera, having been hurt in the attack against both of them, had apparently covered up the bad wound on his stomach until he’d collapsed just a moment ago. Gokudera had muttered something about Yamamoto before he’d passed out completely, but Tsuna could only assume he’d been worried about the other’s safety. “Sorry, Tsuna.”

“Y-you don’t need to apologize to me! You guys were the ones attacked. Neither of you should’ve been involved in this in the first place,” Tsuna answered, worried that Yamamoto was about to try and take all the blame for everything again. In the next moment, however, Reborn cut them both off.

“No-good Tsuna’s right. You shouldn’t be involved in any of this.” The little hitman’s face was, as usual, unreadable, and all it did was give his charge a sinking feeling.

“What do you mean by that?” He asked.

“It’s Hibari’s problem. He came looking around the crime scene, didn’t he?” Reborn said with the same flat tone.

“Well, yes, but isn’t-“ Tsuna didn’t get to finish that sentence before the hitman kicked him in the forehead, landing directly on him as he finished falling over. He let out a strange sound, and Reborn continued as if nothing had happened.

“It looks as though Yamamoto’s enemies made a mistake. Don’t tell me you didn’t find it suspicious?” Reborn asked, directing it at the rest of the room.

Chrome in the corner had suddenly spoken up, which would’ve caused Tsuna to jump had he not been rubbing the sizeable lump on his forehead. “Their illusions were very powerful. It’s clear they are trying to hide their actions.”

“But why would they attack Yamamoto extremely??” Questioned Ryhoei loudly.

Yamamoto glanced at Reborn, who nodded. “Well it’s kinda hard to remember everything, but I think they mistook me for Hibari, their real target. That’s what they said at least. One of the guys talking was really angry, and they didn’t expect me to have rain flames either.”

Tsuna had to admit, thinking about it that way made more sense. At least why they had left the Rain Guardian behind, hiding him and the crime scene, as well as hiding themselves with illusions, but there was just one part of it that he couldn’t get to make sense.

“But why would whoever they are be after Hibari-san? He’s-he’s scary!” Tsuna gestured wildly, flinching as Reborn made another near miss at him. “I mean, we don’t even know why he was there.”

“Then we are going to ask. It’s the best way to understand this situation. I have his second in command’s number,” Reborn said, pulling a cell phone that looked entirely too big for him out.

“Okay…I trust you.” Tsuna glanced at everyone else. Chrome looked pensive, Ryohei confused as normal. Lambo had quickly gotten bored and fallen asleep under Yamamoto’s bed, where Tsuyoshi had taken it upon himself to come and fish the child out. He was glad the rest of his family and everyone at his home were okay, but it seemed odd that this felt so normal. Hibari had never hung out with the rest of them, so him being gone was no different, but Tsuna couldn’t bring himself to worry too much. What on earth could take the Chairman down after he’d grown so strong?

Reborn left the room, and with it came silence. It wasn’t an unprecedented situation, but it was an unusual one. Yamamoto was looking unusually grim and for once it was Hibari they were all thinking about. How much did they even know about the Cloud Guardian anyway?

Tsuna had a bad feeling they were about to find out.

* * *

 

_Kyouya learned when he was six that speaking was a very bad thing._

_If he said the wrong words, his father would hit him with his large, angry hands. They left bruises on his face and the taste of blood in his mouth. Sometimes it wasn’t even that he said anything bad. He just spoke at the wrong moment, made his father’s headache worse, or even just disturbed the peace._

_If he was feeling particularly cruel, Kyouya wouldn’t get food that evening and sent to the little closet where there was nothing but darkness and the musty smell of wood._

_So in the end, he learned not to speak at all. And if he was ordered, to choose his words carefully. They didn’t matter in the long run, but maybe it helped a little. Kyouya always thought his father’s actions spoke louder than his words._

_He’d learned to read from books lying around, and the little his father had cared about his education before it became obvious that Kyouya was a drain on his resources and social standing. He’d learned how to bandage his own cuts a few days later when his father saw him looking at an ‘inappropriate book’ and cut him with a knife._

_The servants never said anything and went along with their master, picking up the pieces of the aftermath, and keeping him from dying again this day._

_And that was how the early life went from by the time he could walk, talk, and remember. There had been one image, however, from that time that was burned in his mind forever, and it was the day-the one where he’d finally met the mysterious woman who ruined his father’s life._

_Kyouya had come back from kindergarten-a practice finally adopted when rumor finally got out in Namimori he existed-and had been hiding out in one of the quiet side rooms his father rarely ever entered and was sitting by himself. Tetsu, apparently a child in a branch family to the Hibari line was always escorting him around but for some reason had been showing up less and less. It didn’t bother him too much. People were bound to just leave him alone anyway._

_What was more important was the fact there was an unexpected visitor at the entrance of the mansion. The servants were going nuts, running back and forth and the large scary suited men has suddenly doubled in number. He could hear the faint sound of a woman’s voice and much closer, the booming sound of his dad, Noboru’s._

_Kyouya froze. It sounded angry, which usually meant trouble. He didn’t hear his name, though so it probably wasn’t about him, but……He had to figure it out. Kyouya slid the door open just wide enough for him to peek out the crack, and breathed out a little bit when he saw his father not even looking in his direction. Rather, he seemed distracted by the woman in the yellow hat in front of him._

_She spoke in accented Japanese, but her tone was still firm and clear, even if her hands clutching to some papers were shaking. “Hibari Noboru, you know exactly why I’m here. I’ve made up my mind. Give him back to me!”_

_The look on his father’s face was scary. It was neutral, but Kyouya had long learned how to see that twitch at the side of his eye to know when he was very angry. “You stupid woman. I thought we’d already made this deal clear and you washed your hands of this whole business.”_

_“I’ve had six years to regret my decisions. I was abandoned by my own father….I’m not going to be like him. Look at you, you wouldn’t even be a good father. Now let me have him! You didn’t even want him around.” The woman’s voice was steel, and Kyouya found he couldn’t look away._

_“You have no proof-“_

_“I have it right here!” She shouted, flourishing the papers. “I asked the hospital to make me a copy right before you came in, flashing your money around. I have connections to the Triad as well, so if you think-“_

_A single gunshot rang out into the hall, and suddenly all Kyouya could see was a flutter of papers falling like petals, and the woman’s body suddenly crumpling to the ground. He didn’t realize what had been done at first, until he saw the red creeping down the fabric she was wearing._

_His eyes were wide, and he forgot that he was even hiding from all the people in the room. He was transfixed as the way the blood was coming out of her chest, and her grey eyes coming over to slowly meet his own. The life or whatever it was in them was fading, but Kyouya couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t run out and try to help her or shout something because he was too small and scared. She was….she was dying._

_But the woman didn’t seem to feel the pain. She just kept looking at Kyouya’s eyes, deep into them and slowly, faintly, her lips curved into a smile. Unbidden by Kyouya, a few tears were falling out of his eyes making his vision blur up and his nose get stuffed. But she never stopped looking at him, not even as her mouth formed the shape of words._

_And as if that had took the last of her energy, the woman’s head finally slumped, her eyes going glassy and blank. Kyouya, stumbled backwards, falling on his elbows before crawling away madly as he heard footsteps approach. He vaguely heard his father’s smooth voice ordering her body disposed of, but he couldn’t hear anything. All he could do was curl into a ball and hide his eyes._

_It was only a week later, after overhearing some of the suited men talk that he realized he’d watched his mother die._

* * *

 

For someone who was so heavily connected to Hibari, it took Kusakabe less than ten minutes to show up to Yamamoto’s hospital room. Reborn had entered on his heels, both looking unusually grim. Tsuna glanced at the two of them for a moment, then back at his guardians. Something about this felt so off, somehow.

“Kusakabe-san. That was fast,” he said awkwardly. The older teen didn’t sit, merely standing at the end of the bed looking decidedly neutral.

“I was close by attempting to find the attackers. It’s no issue. I heard that you had some questions for Kyo-san?” Kusakabe asked.

Per usual, Ryohei had somehow taken the initiative. “We want to know what is up with Hibari’s extreme attitude!”

That got both Tsuna and his teacher to tell him to stop, prompting Yamamoto to finally cut in. “You know about the attack on me, right? I overheard they were actually after Hibari.”

The stem that was normally in Kusakabe’s mouth fell out as he gave the rain guardian a shocked glance. “Are you sure you heard that right?”

Tsuna exchanged a glance with Yamamoto. So something really was going on, wasn’t it? Tsuyoshi in his seat had even tensed up, despite holding Lambo still for the moment. Chrome still looked normal, but she was gripping onto the hem of her uniform hard, stealing a glance at Tsuna every so often.

“I’m pretty sure. I woke up earlier than they thought I would and overheard the conversation. I’m not sure how they mistook me for him but…” Yamamoto’s voice faded away as Reborn hopped up onto his shoulder.

“What we want to know is why Hibari is so interested in this group in the first place. It’s a bit unusual to discover that a mysterious mafia group hunting him down suddenly appeared, only to realize that not only has your boss gone missing, but you seem worried about it.” Reborn’s tone was more than accusatory, making Tsuna twitch his head back and forth. Considering the situation, that wasn’t very nice, and Kusakabe already seemed on edge…

“The boss made me swear never to tell anyone. And unless his life is in danger, I’m afraid I cannot,” said Kusakabe, his voice never wavering.

“You realize that Hibari is a Vongola Guardian, and anything involving him can possibly have an effect on our famiglia, correct? And here you are, obstructing-“

“Reborn, don’t you think that is a bit harsh? I mean for all we know, nothing’s happened. Hibari-san likes to disappear sometimes….”Tsuna slowly faded away from interrupting Reborn as he felt a shade of death pass over him.

And once again, he got a painful yank to his arm from Reborn. “Idiot. Haven’t you learned already to use your brain? This is all too coincidental. Isn’t your intuition telling you something?”

Tsuna had forgotten, but now that his tutor had mentioned it, he remembered feeling uneasy as he got the phone call from Gokudera. And for some reason he couldn’t exactly sit still right now, though he’d thought it was because his two friends had gotten injured. “It can’t be the Vindice or Byakuran again, could it?”

“I promise you, this is an enemy specific to Kyo-san alone,” Kusakabe interrupted, looking up from his phone. “That is all I can say. That and Kyo-san has not contacted me since sending a text about an hour ago that he was not to be disturbed.”

If Tsuna hadn’t already seen how that was impossible, he would’ve attempted to wash his hands of this whole mysterious enemies business. But while he couldn’t exactly call Hibari someone he was close to, he was a member of their group and Tsuna couldn’t just let that go.

“See? He is involved.” Reborn looked entirely too smug for someone who probably knew more than the rest of them. However, the next clue came entirely from someone surprising when Yamamoto suddenly spoke up.

“Hey, so I overheard some of their plans and I was able to pick out a name. Would you know something about some person named Pruvia? Or was it Pluvia…” Yamamoto pondered, before fixing his gaze on Kusakabe. The Disciplinary member, however had gone completely white at the mention of the name, suddenly rushing out of the room and frantically dialing his phone.

“Well, it looks like we hit jackpot,” Reborn said into the shocked silence. Tsuna couldn’t even think of what to say, and it looked like the other guardians felt the same. Never before had he seen Kusakabe upset over just a name, especially not when it came to Hibari. A twisting feeling of dread was settling into his stomach. If it was something that made even the demon of Nami Junior High worried, things must be getting pretty bad.

Just what was going on?

Fortunately, right as it looked like Yamamoto was about to spring out of his bed to ask, Kusakabe came back in with an even more grim look on his face.

“I said that I would only tell you if Kyo-san’s life is in danger, but the situation’s changed. I cannot divulge everything, but you need to come with me,” Kusakabe said, glancing around the room. “If I show you it, perhaps the Vongola can help after all.”

* * *

 

It wasn’t a sudden awakening, nor a very forceful one, but eventually Hibari’s brain stuttered awake. He remembered something about a falling asleep a few more times before, drifting in between conscious states. However, he wasn’t going back now. Not when he was becoming slowly aware of his body and how it felt rather…strange.

His eyes blinked open, staring up at a very smooth and nondescript ceiling. It was probably some type of stone, but what was more important was that his limbs felt heavy and there was something on his face. It took a lot of effort, more than it should’ve, to push him up to a sitting position, and at least a few of the reasons he was feeling so off became clear.

His arms were trapped in front of him, the forearms stuck parallel in some sort of metal contraption, stealing his hands completely off, and feet were lashed together with what felt like a high-tensile wire. Most of his clothes were unchanged, except the fact that they had removed his jacket, shoes and socks, which meant his disciplinary committee band was gone. The shock of that realization was enough to try and force himself to stand up from his sleepy stupor, but quickly hit his head on the ceiling and collapsed on his side.

It had looked a lot farther away when he was lying down, but now that he’d been moving around, Hibari noticed that he’d essentially been sealed inside a small box, with the top of it just several centimeters above his head, and barely enough space lengthwise to lay out. Metal dug into his face as he lay there, bringing his attention to the final pieces of the puzzle: The cage around the lower half of his face, and the thick metal collar around his neck.

The cage was laying over his nose and mouth, and though had metal slits on the front, prevented his jaw from opening at all. The collar he couldn’t see at all, but every so often it emitted a humming noise and was strangely warm against his skin.

This was disgusting.

For some reason, Hibari still felt abnormally sleepy despite his situation, but panic soon won over and his heart started racing. The cloud guardian strained at all of his bonds, attempting to twist the metal and break free, but despite the creaking of the wires, it was fruitless. Again and again he repeated this until he slumped over, dizzy. He was only able to breathe through his nose, and with the panic attack crawling at his skin and making him feel hot and shaky, Hibari quickly fell into a daze he wasn’t able to shake himself out of.

It was by pure luck that he’d managed to collapse with his head facing the rudimentary door that was little more than bars set into stone to his box. Even if he could barely think or move right now, Hibari needed to know what was going on-if someone was going to come and drag him out of this hellhole.

Eventually his heart rate calmed down as he breathed deeply through his nose, taking assessments that other than being tied up, he was fine. Well, fine was a relative term and he kept almost dozing off, but it was slightly better than being dead.

Really, why was he so tired? Hibari tried to remember anything he could from when he first lost consciousness, but it was very vague and the pieces kept slipping away. Fishing more aggressively, he recalled a cat and Hibird screeching as people murmured something above him.

_Fuck,_ he thought to himself. If any of his enemies could see him now they would have to take turns laughing. Him, Hibari Kyouya, the feared guardian of Namimori had somehow been captured by some random people on the steet; he thought he was better than this!

Unfortunately he didn’t get enough time to think about escaping anymore as the sound of heavy booted feet coming towards his cage. Hibari quickly shut his eyes, feigning sleep as they stopped in front of it. It was always easier to get information when someone didn’t think you were listening.

The problem was they were speaking Italian, and while it was loud, Hibari could only understand random words, not enough to pick out any particular meanings. He cursed not learning Italian more rigourously as the door to his cage creaked open, and he felt shadows loom over him.

He heard ‘ _money’_ and ‘ _weapon’,_ as well as the name Vongola very clearly when hands came to pick him up off the ground. It took every ounce of self-restraint not to go berserk right then and there. He absolutely hated being touched, and now two buffoons were manhandling him like a piece of meat…but he could handle this. Hibari just had to wait for the right time to find a way out of this; there HAD to be an opening.

Until then, he logged each turn and scuffle that the two made, mentally making a map that would lead back to his cell so he’d at least know what direction he was going. Hibari really wanted to open his eyes, but it was too risky. The two continued to babble in Italian the conversation fading quickly into something that involved sports.

So this group was Italian, and didn’t have information on him more than he was a dark-haired Vongola Guardian, as they had attacked Yamamoto first, but were surprisingly swift in finding him again. And since there was only one group that he’d actually had trouble tracking down….

This room they had brought him in seemed bigger than the hallways they were dragging him through before, and smelled ominously of antiseptic. There was another person there, but now Hibari wasn’t opening his eyes out of spite. He’d had a lot of training for feigning unconsciousness.

The two goons dragging him said a few sentences in Italian, a woman’s voice answering them before they suddenly switched to Japanese. “So that’s interesting, Hibari Kyouya really can be restrained. I’ll give a note to that in the future.”

“Boss, why are you speaking in Japanese, didn’t you say not to around him?” The guy on the left asked. Hibari almost hissed; of course it was on purpose. These people were smarter than he thought.

“Oh, he’s already awake. Probably for quite some time.” The two presences holding him shifted, probably in surprise, and Hibari almost opened his eyes just so he could find a way to spit on them, when suddenly a ringing slap landed on his face.

His eyes shot open, sliding over to his assaulter, only to find a middle-aged woman with a mask over half of her face. The scars jutting out from beneath it explained its presence, and about the only other interesting parts about her was the half-shaved hair and the outdated military outfit she was wearing. Hibari recognized her from photos, and with his suspicion confirmed, he narrowed his eyes at her.

She merely smiled and reached out with her hand to grab his chin and yank his head back. Hibari couldn’t speak, though with her touch he suddenly began struggling, causing her two goons to almost drop him on the floor. “Fuck, he’s strong!”

The grip on his face stayed strong, and while Hibari neatly elbowed one of the guys in the stomach, a blue light enveloped the hand and all of a sudden his body went completely lax. The only thing that prevented his mind from following was the sheer anger coursing through his veins. That didn’t help when his body flopped uselessly like a dead fish, causing the two goons to finally get a better grip on his arms.

“They designed him to be smart, you both know that. You better keep a good grip on him. He’s going to make us a lot of money,” The woman said, not letting up her grip on Hibari’s face. His stomach sank when he heard those words. He knew something like this was going to happen, but he didn’t know that they’d be resourceful enough to actually catch him.

But he couldn’t do anything. He couldn’t even open his mouth to curse them out; it was like the sakura all over again, only this wasn’t an enemy he could fight. No one knew about this except Tetsu because he wanted it that way. All he could do was stare into her eyes and wish he could burn her brains out.

“You really mean that? It’s gonna save us?” The guy on the right asked.

“Why do you think we went to all the trouble of keeping him alive and healthy like this? I can guarantee this kid is our ticket to a good life. And it’s not going to be like the first time. Got it?” She turned his head from side to side, inspecting him like he was smuggled goods before letting go.

Even with the blue flames removed, Hibari still felt limp. _I was right. Rain flames….she a rain user. I can’t…move._ Yamamoto had never used his flames like this; it almost felt like an invasion. He really was in trouble, wasn’t he?

Unfortunately, the adrenaline had started to fade and the sleepiness was finally kicking in, dragging his eyelids slowly closed. Hibari blinked, attempting to stay awake. The hand reached for him again, sending a new surge of lethargy through his veins.

Vaguely, he realized he’d been dropped to the floor, the voices above him still dimly speaking. “Boss, I think you need to up his dosage if he’s still awake after that much rain flames.”

“I know, I know. It’s such a pain sometimes. You two, keep a close eye on him while we set up the equipment. He’s crafty. And do something about that box animal of his, will you? Its squeaking is driving me crazy.” The woman’s voice said.

One of the shadows acknowledged in Italian, boots stomping off. The world was fading out again for Hibari, but a hand reached down to open one of his eyelids, finding him staring into the woman’s eye again. “How rude of me. I almost forgot to introduce myself. Call me Pruvia, will you? I’m pretty sure you’ve guessed the rest, but I don’t have any more time for monologues. Sleep tight, kid.”

And unfortunately, he did.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Suffer with me.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some of the more graphic stuff is going to be starting to happen this chapter, just as a forewarning.

_Kyouya liked school. It was a strange place, full of people he’d never seen before, and for the first time in his life, he was away from his father and his frightening hands. One time, Kyouya had accidentally snapped at a classmate, instead of stabbing him with a fork, they just made him go sit in a corner. It may have been much better than the treatment he was given at home, but the little child had his first taste of freedom and justice._

_There was this thing called a Disciplinary Committee he heard about in the older students. It was apparently supposed to instill a sense of justice and responsibility in children. Kyouya of course, demanded that he wanted to be one, and they humored him, giving a little armband to the child. Tetsu, his ever-loyal subordinate got one too, and from that day on he never let go of his new role as the harbinger of justice._

_The one good thing about having yakuza parents was that they couldn’t really go against him when he said things like that, but Kyouya didn’t care. Even just as a child, he could finally tell the bad people off. Maybe one day if he practiced enough, he’d get the courage to do the same for his father! But until then, Kyouya told Tetsu to take off the band before his father’s servants came to pick them up. It was his own secret._

_After they came home, Tetsu always vanished. He used to be with Kyouya all the time in the house, almost like a retainer from one of those old historical novels, but especially after his mother died, Tetsu kept leaving. It made Kyouya angry that his loyal minion was like that, even as they were both now a Disciplinary Committee rebelling secretly against Noboru._

_But nothing could be done. He eventually moved on to primary school, now a bit older and clearer-headed. He was almost getting to the age where he could form a real club and then the school would be his oyster. The only problem was now his father was paying him more attention.  Not even a year passed since he saw the woman in the yellow hat get shot and suddenly he was there, asking Kyouya about his grades, about how well he was doing, everything. He even forced him to fill out strange questions on strange sheets, filled with complicated lettering and shapes._

_The worst time was when some strange people came to the house. They weren’t like the scary suited men who always followed his father around; these people were different. They were wearing foreign clothes and things that looked like uniforms. Kyouya once again stared at them through a crack in the door; he’d gotten very good at that._

_But they spoke in some strange language and his father answered back the same, so Kyouya couldn’t figure out what he was saying. Then they vanished into the basement that Kyouya was never supposed to go near. ‘We’re getting ready,’ his father was always saying. ‘It’s almost done, you’ll see soon.’_

_The next day, like a cliché in a horror movie, he found out the secret of the basement._

* * *

 

Tsuna couldn’t deny that this time, he was actually curious. Ryohei had mentioned he had been to Hibari’s house before and it had been ‘extremely huge!’, but no one else had seen it. In fact, most of Namimori was convinced he didn’t have a home, he just slept at the school.

Kusakabe of course informed them while that was somewhat true, every so often Hibari did returned to his house when he felt like it. Most of his important resources were there, as well as his cats.

“Cats?” Gokudera suddenly asked, his face almost draining in color.

“Yes, Kyo-san adopts stray cats and lets them have roam of his house. It is part of our duties as Disciplinary Committee members to take care of them when he isn’t there,” Kusakabe explained. That really…just left more questions than answers, but except for Gokudera’s angry questions, the rest of them knew it was pretty pointless to ask.

The trip over to Hibari’s place didn’t last much longer. Yamamoto, having been discharged along with Gokudera with a strict order of ‘don’t move around too much’, had already asked his dad to take Lambo home so he didn’t have to see any of this. Tsuna’s intuition never failed him, and in this moment it felt like they were about to stumble onto some horrible secret.

Or maybe it was just Kusakabe’s body language. Even as he walked up to the entrance to Hibari’s house, Tsuna had never seen him look so tense and wound up. Of course, calling it a house wasn’t doing it justice.

“What the fuck? This is a goddamn mansion!!” Gokudera spat out, dropping his cigarette in surprise. The huge eastern-styled building was sprawled out in the center of a very beautiful garden adorned with rock paths and small ponds. Yamamoto was right behind him, laughing in disbelief.

“Man, I knew Hibari was loaded, but not this much…” The baseball player said, looking up and around as they followed Kusakabe.

Chrome behind them was completely silent, but even her one remaining eye was looking at the place in wonder. It was like something straight out of a brochure or a movie set.

“Kyo-san is descended from some powerful people,” was Kusakabe’s answer. “His parents were rich. So he inherited this wealth and is currently putting it to good use.”

Gokudera muttered something obviously insulting under his breath, but Tsuna just frantically shook his head. They kind of needed Kusakabe’s help right now. The front door seemed decidedly normal for such an eastern style house, but as they removed their shoes and stepped inside, the interior was just as beautiful as the outside.

The entrance area was wide and flat with places for shoes and jackets, but they barely got time to do that before Kusakabe was already stalking towards an eerie and out-of-place looking door over to the side. It wasn’t sliding like the rest of them, and had the same look as a metal locked door that closed off electrical equipment. Taking a key from his pocket, Kusakabe unlocked it as they all stood there dumbly. 

“Whatever you see down here,” he said, turning back to them with a steely look in his gaze, “You must not repeat to anyone else. This is Kyo-san’s biggest secret, and for his own sake, I have been protecting it. Do you understand?”

Tsuna just nodded cautiously, causing the rest of guardians to follow, however uneasily. There was an almost tangible rush of cold air when the door opened, revealing a creepy dark stairway down into some abyss. Yamamoto made a joke about how it seemed just like a horror movie he’d watched last month, but even he couldn’t mask the tension in his voice.

Kusakabe started down, his feet echoing with every step of the stone. The others had waited until Tsuna followed, Gokudera suddenly pushing forward in front of him despite his stomach wound. The rest trailed after, and it was silent until they got near the bottom of the stairs. Kusakabe was muttering something about the lights, but the new mafia boss couldn’t do anything but swallow and stare at the vague shapes that sprang out of the darkness.

He knew absolutely nothing about Hibari. None of them did, and for some reason, the cold piercing air of this room was making him feel as though he was about keel over with anxiety. “Boss, are you okay?”

Chrome spoke softly behind him, Tsuna having been the only one to stop out of all the guardians. Her hand had come to grip his shoulder but whether that was because she could sense the fear or just didn’t want to trip, he didn’t know.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Where-where exactly are we?” He asked, stumbling down the last few steps onto the concrete floor.

Kusakabe answered by finally finding the light switch and switching it.

Tsuna really wished he’d been more prepared.

* * *

 

Hibari wasn’t sure what he’d find when he’d woken up again, especially since it was hard to remember having fallen asleep in the first place. But by the time his brain had shaken off the shackles of the Rain flame tranquility, he found himself staring into a bright light on the ceiling.

The damned contraption was still on his face, but his body still felt sort of numb. There were noises coming from the right side, but Hibari was just going to test himself before he found out what it was. He was pretty sure he already knew, anyway.

His body was intact, but not moving. The collar on his throat was humming louder than before, confirming his theory that the thing had been designed to inject a constant supply of Rain flames into his body to slow his reactions down.

That being confirmed, Hibari turned his head to the right side where the strange noises were coming from, only to find an entirely different looking scientist person in a white coat leaning over his arm. His forearm had been pinned face-up under another lamp, and the skin had been split open all the way down to his muscle tissue. Despite a bit of blood leaking from the open wound and the opening being held ajar with surgical scissors, Hibari could barely feel anything except a burning up the nerves in his arm. Was this another effect of the rain flames?

A slight twitch in his arm caused the scientist to look up at the teen, his face barely flickering in surprise when he saw Hibari’s awakened state. “Truly Pruvia wasn’t lying when she said that you could withstand a lot of sedatives. Well, no matter. As long as you can’t injure yourself by moving.”

And with that, the white coated man went back to poking at his muscle tissue with a pair of forceps. Hibari wanted to thrash around, yell his lungs out cursing this man and these goons to death, but his body would barely respond to him with more than a despondant twitch. The panic bubbling inside him had nowhere to go, and whatever they were feeding him through that collar was making whatever was left of his common sense fracture into a thousand splinters.

Not being able to do anything about the man now pulling muscle fibers apart to get further, he lolled his head in the other direction, looking up at the couple of bags hooked up to an IV stand connected to both his collar and arm. That was probably what was creating the rest of this languid state he was in. Trying to even figure out what this man was doing on Pruvia’s orders made him sleepy, and Hibari closed his eyes for a moment.

That proved to be a huge mistake when he woke up and the surroundings had changed slightly. He shifted his body slightly, stopping when there was a sudden twinge of pain in several areas of his body at once. That wasn’t there before. His eyes flipping open wide, he quickly pried his head up and looked down at his arm where the white coat had been earlier, only to find bandages wrapped around it with blood leaking through.

It hadn’t been a dream. Looking down at his body, he found that one, his shirt and pants had been stripped off, leaving him in just his underwear, and the real bothersome part was those weren’t _the only bandages._ The drugs or whatever they had him on from before must have worn off because he actually could move his body around, tugging at the restraints that held him in place.

Once, twice, a few more times, until he felt some of the stitches in one of his wounds break and a trickle of blood slowly leaked out onto his ribcage. Never had Hibari felt this disgusted since a long time ago; just the thought that that white coat man had stuck his fingers in his body elsewhere, _violating his own flesh and bone,_ made him shudder.

He’d already had a lifetime of other people owning and using his body as an experiment; he wasn’t going to let it happen again if he could help it. Unfortunately no matter how much he struggled, it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. Hibari thought he had a chance with actually being able to move, but his limbs still felt limp and sluggish.

He growled several frustrated words under his breath, pulling at his leg one more time. It was sad how quickly he was getting used to not having the use of his jaw and full brain capacity. Hearing voices coming towards him, Hibari just clenched his jaw even further.

They were again, speaking Italian and it was the white coat from earlier, Pruvia, and one of her idiot thugs. Despite seeing him awake, they paid him little to no attention, instead going over to a table and speaking about some sheets of paper. If they were going to ignore him, so was he.

His left arm didn’t have any bandages on it, so Hibari found that a good place to start. Slowly, he began to flex the muscles in that arm, harder and harder until the leather-like band that was holding it down was straining. It still was taking much longer to generate the normal kind of power he was used to, but Hibari was nothing if not stubborn and kept at it. Slowly, much longer than it should’ve taken, the bond finally snapped.

Knowing he probably got the attention of the others in the room with that stunt, he quickly fumbled with his fingers at the other arm, managing to free it before the man came over to stop him. “Hey, what the-“

The guy didn’t even get to finish his sentence before Hibari’s hand slammed into his nose, crunching the bone practically into a paste. He howled, lifting his hands upwards to his face, where Hibari promptly grabbed one and drove his elbow into the bone, snapping it. Whatever weakness he had in his limbs before was briefly ignored as he pulled himself up the best he could, driving another fist into the man’s ribs and knocking him over.

That gave Hibari enough respite that he reached down to pry at the leg restraints, except he’d forgotten one important detail: the tubes connected to his arms and neck were still attached, and tugged painfully at his skin when he reached forward. This was enough of a pause for the collar around his throat to suddenly whirr to life, constricting so tightly around his throat he couldn’t breathe. That combined with someone slamming him backwards so hard that his head hit into something caused Hibari to suddenly black out.

He didn’t realize he had until he woke up slowly probably several minutes later lying again flat against the operating chair, dizzy and restrained. Hibari’s neck was no longer being crushed by the collar, but the skin around it still stung. It was most definitely going to bruise.

Now the voices were much closer, almost on top of him, which made his body twitch against what was holding him down. This time he heard the clank of metal and his eyes confirmed it once they finally blurred into focus; he was chained down to the table with metal bars.

To his right, the white coat man was back, this time with a needle and thread to stitch up the wounds he had ripped open. There was no painkiller this time so he felt the needle pierce his skin with each practiced movement. Whatever. He didn’t care about that. What he did care about was the fact there were a lot more tubes attached to his left arm and a mask over his face. Pruvia herself was leaning over, speaking quick Italian words with the man stitching him up before she looked back down at him.

“I’m definitely impressed. Not only did you break out, but you managed to severely injure one of my strongest fighters,” she said. The collar on his neck clicked and whirred, making his body feel heavy with rain flames. His mind however, was howling in protest as she invaded his personal space, as the oxygen mask over his face began giving him something that was most definitely not oxygen.

His vision began to blur as the air he needed became much thinner and his chest began rising and falling fast as Hibari’s heartbeat sped up. He remembered something like this happening awhile back in the basement; they had constantly lowered the stream of breathable air until they could make his body function in increasing anoxic situations. Were they….

“Hey, there’s nothing to worry about yet. We just need to test your limits now at this age for data needed to complete the experiment,” Pruvia said, ruffling his hair in a sickingly friendly gesture. After hearing that, Hibari couldn’t focus on anything but the rising panic that was practically forcing itself up into his stomach. His experiment. His experiment, that he thought had been put to rest years ago, and they had somehow found the data for it just like he had feared.

The mixture of so much stimuli, lack of oxygen to his brain, and the piercing stings of his flesh being sewn together each drove wedges into his consciousness until it finally, mercifully fell apart. _Tetsu, if you have any lingering loyalty to me, let me die here with what’s left of my pride._

* * *

 

At first when the lights snapped on, the basement looked normal. Tsuna squinted a little bit, but his eyes soon adjusted to the light. The room was a pretty simple stone, having the aesthetics of a prison and not much other than technology that wouldn’t look out of place in Spanner’s hands scattered around on the floor and tables.

It was so far removed from the outside of Hibari’s house that for a moment he doubted that they were even in the same building. The stairs were still there, leading up to faint safety, but as the rest of his friends and Reborn moved forward, he knew he had to as well.

The computers against the far wall seemed to be the most intact and well-kept instruments in this room, other than the scattering of equally metal doors leading off to other areas. Kusakabe had in their hesitation walked up to the monitor and turned it on. The images that had flickered up from sleep mode was something akin to what would be seen in a hospital or medical drama, diagrams of a human body with indecipherable text scrolling next to it. Another screen showed the schematic of something else that looked suspiciously like a box weapon, but none of that mattered when they finally discovered the dark stain on the floor.

Or rather, the pathway. Yamamoto had discovered it first, making a noise and holding out an arm to stop Gokudera from stepping on it. They were dark brown streaks that had led from the stairs to a room on the left looking suspiciously like-

“Blood!” Ryohei shouted, having looked through the window. “It’s extremely blood!”

Tsuna’s whole body jolted, enough that he sprang off of the dried stains in the stone, nearly crashing into Gokudera in the process. “What-what could do something like that?”

For some reason, Ryohei wasn’t speaking and merely pointed to the glass window on the side of the room. Tsuna didn’t want to go look at it. He really didn’t want to follow Yamamoto and Gokudera over there and peer through the glass at what he knew he’d probably see, but he had to. Kusakabe was leaning over the computer and Chrome was nowhere to be seen, and Reborn was already dragging him.

“This is important, Tsuna. He is your guardian,” was all the little hitman said before he finally came in view.

It was, for lack of a better word, horrifying.

The room was a rough circle shape with no other visible entrances and exits, but the most striking feature were the bloodstains _everywhere_. The path of streaks continued from their side to the middle, where it expanded into a giant pool, patches of brown thrown left and right like someone wildly sloshed a paint bucket. It didn’t end there, either-it was on the walls, the self-same streaks and patches that looks horribly like blood spray and other things that Tsuna didn’t even want to name, and even in slight drops, reached the ceiling. The glass itself was hard to see through because of the red mist creeping at the bottom edges and he was pretty sure in that beat up bloody room, he saw pieces of bone.

Not even Gokudera had anything to say about that. Tsuna dropped to a crouch, unable to stare at the massacre of a room any longer, causing his friends to turn around and ask if he was okay. Tsuna wasn’t okay, not in the least, but he didn’t know what to tell them.

“That room in there is the arena Hibari Noboru used to have his son fight all the strongest enemies and weapons he could find. Sometimes he locked people who disagreed with him in there with Kyo-san and didn’t let them out until they were in pieces.” Kusakabe had been looking at the computer screens still, but now turned back to talk to them. “Kyo-san suffered the most: if he didn’t finish off his opponent, he’d most likely be tortured.”

Gokudera’s mouth had opened and closed a couple times, like he was processing what was going on and making no sense. It was strange to see the bomber so dumbstruck; he usually always had an insult or a loud demand for everything and Tsuna right now almost wished he’d start yelling or picking a fight to get the image of that blood out of his mind.

Yamamoto’s hand came down gently on his shoulder, pausing there slightly before he spoke. “Is this Pruvia person responsible for giving Hibari’s dad this idea?”

Kusakabe’s eyes momentarily widened, but he nodded anyway. “She is a part of an Italian group specializing in weapons. Human weapons are obviously included in their interests. Kyo-san has been asking me to keep track of them ever since he killed his father. It was their previous research that gave Kyo-san’s father the ability to do this.”

“What the FUCK. What the FUCK is this, Kusakabe?!” Gokudera had finally found his voice. “You can’t just-show us something like that and-I don’t know, expect us to keep quiet! Just look at the Tenth, he’s practically sick! _What the hell is your point here?”_

Tsuna wanted to get up, tell the bomber to stop, he was making everything worse, but he didn’t know if he opened his mouth he’d be able to keep it together. Thankfully Yamamoto saw this and got up to hold the two apart before Gokudera tried attacking Hibari’s much larger subordinate. “Hey, hey, settle down Gokudera. Attacking him isn’t going to help anyone.”

“Then what the hell do you want from us?!!” Gokudera shouted, straining against Yamamoto’s arm. “You’re just saying the people who hurt us made Hibari do shit like this?!”

For some reason Gokudera’s next shove managed to knock Yamamoto off balance and onto the floor, which was enough for Tsuna to finally spring into action and run over to stop the almost fight. “Gokudera-kun, stop it! You’ll injure yourself more. Yamamoto-kun, are you okay?”

The taller boy was blinking like he’d just woke up before looking up and smiling slightly. “Yes I’m fine. But Tsuna’s right. We both got banged up pretty bad, Gokudera. I know you’re worried-“

“I’m not worried-!”

“-but I think Kusakabe just wanted our help,” Yamamoto finished, slowly pulling himself up, wincing when he pulled at his wounds.

“That’s right. The Vongola has a lot of resources, much more than I could ever hope to muster. Reborn, do you think…?” Remarkably, Kusakabe had shown a lot of composure through the altercation, but there was an uncertain waver in his language now. Backing up, he retreated to the computers with Reborn following him.

“I don’t know. It depends on what you want to happen. Do you think the Vongola should really spend resources and make enemies with an unknown anomaly for a person who has proven himself to be a danger?” Reborn asked.

Kusakabe whirled around, anger suddenly in his eyes. “You should know better than anyone that Kyo-san doesn’t care about the Vongola enough to destroy it. He still carries the ring with him and your promise to fight him in the future. I don’t care what I have to do, I just want to get Kyo-san back!”

The room was silent for a tense moment, until Reborn smiled under his hat. “That was the right answer. He has some incredibly loyal subordinates; call me moved. I will be contacting our tech department and Dino shortly.”

With that the tiny hitman practically disappeared up the stairs, leaving the rest of the teens down in the desolated, bloody palace. Kusakabe was holding himself like he was unsure of what just happened, and Tsuna didn’t quite know what to tell him.

There was a flutter of movement over by the computers and before Tsuna realized it, Chrome was running past him. She didn’t even stop to say a word before her boots pounded heavily on the stairs and the faint sound of doors being wrenched open came from upstairs. Ryohei peeled himself away from the dent his fist had made in the wall and started to go after her, but Tsuna just shook his head as he stepped in front of the stairs.

“We should probably just let her be. I don’t blame her,” he said. Ryohei looked uncertain, but he didn’t question it further, merely staring his boss down.

“I’m upset by this,” he said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice.

“We all are, turf head,” Gokudera growled from the corner he’d taken up residence in, finally lighting his cigarette with fumbling fingers. Yamamoto was strangely unreadable as usual, but his gaze was serious.

The worst part was Ryohei didn’t even respond to the insult.

“I haven’t been able to contact Kyo-san since after he left the crime scene. With the attack on Yamamoto I have all the evidence to assume they could easily go after him next. I know he is hard to get along with him, but the Vongola might be the only people who would be able to find him if he’s been captured,” Kusakabe said again, retreating once more to the chair in front of the computer and sinking down into it.

“Of course we’ll help. He’s our friend whether he likes it or not,” Tsuna said suddenly, surprising even himself. Yamamoto smiled finally, and even Gokudera made a grunt of acquiescence from the corner. It seemed to warm the chill of this place just a little, even with the lurking horrors waiting in the other rooms.

All they could do for now was to put faith in Hibari’s strength.

* * *

 

Chrome’s heart was beating in her chest as fast as her feet could touch the ground, running away from Hibari’s mansion. She didn’t want to believe what she had scene but she knew she couldn’t; it made too much sense and if it was right, Mukuro-sama had to know.

She had to help Hibari somehow, even with their history; he was important to them both. Her hands clutched the conjured trident as she tried to push herself faster than her rather frail body would allow. The metal staff in her hands gave her a measure of solace over the truth she was going to have to deliver to Chikusa and Ken.

And Mukuro-sama, if he didn’t already know.

_I can’t believe it. I can’t believe these people were involved with the Estraneo. I have to tell them!_

She ran faster.

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically a work of (fan) fiction that involves all my headcanons about Hibari's backstory going on what very little we know about it. He's my favorite character and I felt like I wanted to at least share my thoughts on the matter in case someone else enjoyed it.
> 
> ...that being said, its gonna get pretty fucked up, so maybe hold that thought.


End file.
